Most who have hunted lobster are aware that the benthic creatures can move exceedingly quickly from an open, vulnerable spot on the sea floor. With a quick flexure of its tail, a lobster can propel itself a significant distance to safe cover. Once backed in under a rock, the lobster is nearly invulnerable, particularly to a hunting fish. As a result, surprise is nearly an absolute requirement for any hunter hoping to catch a lobster in open water, and it is the only means by which most fish can hope to seize upon a healthy lobster in any circumstance. Therefore, the most desirable lobster to a hunting fish is one that is sitting still and unaware in an open area of the sea floor. When such a rare thing is seen, fish attack such lobsters with deadly speed and ferocity. To the dismay of lobsters and lobstermen, ravenous hunting fish commonly eat small lobsters whole while goring and dismembering lobsters too large to swallow.
Although the ravenous hunting fish may be the enemy of lobstermen and lobsters alike, its feeding practices present a tremendous and unique opportunity for anglers, the hunters of these hunters. Stated most simply, the present disclosure relays the inventor's discovery that there is a tremendous need for and significant benefits to be achieved by a lure that can be lowered by a line onto the ocean floor to lie generally still to simulate the appearance and slight movements of an unaware and vulnerable lobster.
With this need now apparent, the inventor was prompted to discover a number of derivative needs. These have given rise to a number of further improvements found in the present fishing lure. For example, upon realizing that a lure simulating a generally still lobster sitting unaware in open water would induce predatory fish into a violent attack, the inventor appreciated that the lure might be irreparably damaged by the striking of a fish. It thus came to light that an ideal lure would permit a damaged simulative body portion to be removed and replaced relative to a skeletal framework or jig so that a fisherman would not be forced to purchase a complete new lure each time a simulative body portion was damaged. Furthermore, a preferred lure would detachably retain a barb portion of a hook at a selected orientation to increase the likelihood that an attacking fish would be hooked, reduce the likelihood of the lure's snagging, and reduce damage to the simulative body portion of the lure by the barb portion of the hook's tending to detach from the simulative body portion of the lure upon attack. The inventor also realized that the fishing location and the fishing conditions of a given day would affect what sizes and styles of a lure's simulative body portion are most effective. With this, a need became clear for a simulative lure that would permit an interchangeability of simulative body portions of different sizes and styles. Ideally, such a lure would further permit a user to suit the hardware of the lure (i.e., line, ballast, and hook size and type) to particular sea conditions and prey. Furthermore, the lure would be particularly suited and designed for dropping upright onto the sea floor and sitting generally still with only its extremities moving about with sea movement.